universally appealing works of fiction 2
Discover the most universally appealing works of fiction with our curated list of timeless books. Explore captivating stories that transcend cultures and generations.
Book
Brave New World
by Aldous Huxley
Huxley's story shows a futuristic World State where all emotion, love, art, and human individuality have been replaced by social stability. An ominous warning to the world's population, this literary classic is a must-read.
Book
The Queen's Fool
by Philippa Gregory
#1 New York Times bestselling author and “queen of royal fiction” (USA TODAY) Philippa Gregory weaves a spellbinding tale of a young woman with the ability to see the future in an era when destiny was anything but clear. Winter, 1553. Pursued by the Inquisition, Hannah Green, a fourteen-year-old Jewish girl, is forced to flee with her father from their home in Spain. But Hannah is no ordinary refugee; she has the gift of “Sight,” the ability to foresee the future, priceless in the troubled times of the Tudor court. Hannah is adopted by the glamorous Robert Dudley, the charismatic son of King Edward’s protector, who brings her to court as a “holy fool” for Queen Mary and, ultimately, Queen Elizabeth. Hired as a fool but working as a spy; promised in wedlock but in love with her master; endangered by the laws against heresy, treason, and witchcraft, Hannah must choose between the safe life of a commoner and the dangerous intrigues of the royal family that are inextricably bound up with her own yearnings and desires. Teeming with vibrant period detail and peopled by characters seamlessly woven into the sweeping tapestry of history, The Queen’s Fool is a rich and emotionally resonant gem from a masterful storyteller.
Book
On the Road
by Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouac’s classic American novel of freedom and the search for originality that defined a generation “An authentic work of art.”—The New York Times Inspired by Jack Kerouac’s adventures with Neal Cassady, On the Road tells the story of two friends whose cross-country road trips are a quest for meaning and true experience. Written with a mixture of sad-eyed naïveté and wild abandon and imbued with Kerouac’s love of America, his compassion for humanity, and his sense of language as jazz, On the Road is the quintessential American vision of freedom and hope—a book that changed American literature and changed anyone who has ever picked it up.
Book
Lord of the Flies
by William Golding
Golding’s iconic 1954 novel, now with a new foreword by Lois Lowry, remains one of the greatest books ever written for young adults and an unforgettable classic for readers of any age. This edition includes a new Suggestions for Further Reading by Jennifer Buehler. At the dawn of the next world war, a plane crashes on an uncharted island, stranding a group of schoolboys. At first, with no adult supervision, their freedom is something to celebrate. This far from civilization they can do anything they want. Anything. But as order collapses, as strange howls echo in the night, as terror begins its reign, the hope of adventure seems as far removed from reality as the hope of being rescued.
Book
Le Fin
by Victoria Taylor Murray
The Lambert Series (Thief Of Hearts, Forbidden and Friendly Enemies), is centered around one earth-shattering week in the life of Nouri St. Charles Sommers, a beautiful young woman that rushed into marriage with a mysterious billionaire...a man she knew nothing about. Two short years later, Nourias fairytale marriage suddenly turns into a nightmare changing her life forever a].Falling in love a] out of love a] in love againa]a fairytale marriage turned nightmarea]implicated and then cleared in two gruesome murdersa]surviving a death threat after being forced into hiding from a stalkera]Nourias one week from hell continues. Now six weeks later, Nourias life continues to spin out of control, drawing the reader deeper and deeper into the turmoil of The Lambert Series with the final book to the series, Le Fin. Nourias billionaire husband, Ethan Sommers, has been shot and killed. Her former lover, high-powered attorney Clint Chamberlain, is feared dead after his car plummets off a bridge in Paris during a rain storm, and if those things arenat bad enough for her to deal with, Nouri suddenly discovers that the man she has finally chosen over both Clint Chamberlain and Charles Mason, homicide detective Gabe Baldwin, has returned to Boston to wed his former fiancA(c)e after an argument Nouri and Gabe had while they were still in France.
Book
Death of an Ordinary Man
by Glen Duncan
With Death of an Ordinary Man, Glen Duncan continues his penetrating and innovative exploration of the supernatural with a novel that is far and away his most powerful and accomplished yet.
Book
Black Rose
by Nora Roberts
#1 New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts presents the second novel of her In the Garden trilogy, as three women must discover the secrets from the past contained within their historic home… A Harper has always lived at Harper House, the centuries-old mansion just outside of Memphis. And for as long as anyone alive remembers, the ghostly Harper Bride has walked the halls, singing lullabies at night… At forty-seven, Rosalind Harper is a woman whose experiences have made her strong enough to bend without breaking—and to weather any storm. A widow with three grown sons, she survived a disastrous second marriage and built her In the Garden nursery from the ground up. Through the years, In the Garden has become more than just a thriving business—it is a symbol of hope and independence to Roz, and to the two women she shares it with. Newlywed Stella and new mother Hayley are the sisters of her heart, and together, the three of them are the future of In the Garden. Hired to investigate Roz’s Harper ancestors, Dr. Mitchell Carnegie finds himself just as intrigued by Roz herself. And as they begin to resurrect old secrets, Roz is shocked to find herself falling for the fascinating genealogist—even when he learns more about her than anyone has before… Don't miss the other books in the In the Garden trilogy Blue Dahlia Red Lily
Book
One Hundred Years of Solitude
by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The rise and fall, birth and death, of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the BuendĂa family.
Book
The Stranger
by Albert Camus
With the intrigue of a psychological thriller, The Stranger—Camus's masterpiece—gives us the story of an ordinary man unwittingly drawn into a senseless murder on an Algerian beach. With an Introduction by Peter Dunwoodie; translated by Matthew Ward. Behind the subterfuge, Camus explores what he termed "the nakedness of man faced with the absurd" and describes the condition of reckless alienation and spiritual exhaustion that characterized so much of twentieth-century life. “The Stranger is a strikingly modern text and Matthew Ward’s translation will enable readers to appreciate why Camus’s stoical anti-hero and Âdevious narrator remains one of the key expressions of a postwar Western malaise, and one of the cleverest exponents of a literature of ambiguity.” –from the Introduction by Peter Dunwoodie First published in 1946; now in translation by Matthew Ward.
